The Betrayal of America’s Middle Class Was a Choice, Not an Accident
(Amy B Dean, Truthout, 3 October 2012 )
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The Betrayal of the America Dream
The outsourcing of good jobs, the elimination of pensions, rampant home foreclosures; skyrocketing higher education costs and mounting debt: Given these stark realities, the American middle class seems to be sinking fast. . . . A study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics a couple of years ago estimated that basically 25 percent of the entire service workforce, or roughly 30 million jobs, [are] in danger of being off-shored and outsourced. That’s a huge number. And, if anything, the Labor Department has underestimated the impact of globalization on the American workforce over the years.” . . . “One of the myths out there is that high wages paid to union workers are driving these jobs offshore. We make the point that in a whole series of key manufacturing sectors – like the auto industry – workers in places like Germany and Japan make more money through wages and benefits than autoworkers in this country. The idea that just high wages are the reason that companies are going offshore is complete malarkey. The main reason is the incentives provided by foreign governments; and then, when companies bring their product back to this country, there’s essentially no tariff on it. So there’s a tremendous incentive for big corporations to go abroad and not pay any penalty for it.” . . . “An integral part of this is the success that the elite have had in focusing attention on the budget deficit,” he said. “While it’s important in the scheme of things, it should be at the bottom of the list, the absolute bottom. At the top should be … and you never hear these two words uttered together … the trade deficit, because it is the trade deficit that results in lost jobs. In the decade of the 90s, the trade deficit was close to 8 trillion dollars. Each year it gets bigger and bigger. We haven’t had a trade surplus since the mid-1970s. Since then, it’s been annual trade deficits. Every one of those annual deficits translates into lost jobs. Yet no one talks about ending the trade deficit.” . . . ”The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. After 37 consecutive years of trade deficits, all accompanied by lost jobs, I don’t care what anybody says about throwing up walls. You don’t have to throw up walls, but you do need to do something different. If something isn’t done, this country is going to go down the tubes.”
